anyway feeling very normal about this scene
the fact that after a long, unpleasant day of absolutely nothing going his way and constantly being reminded of how much everyone else dislikes him, he's too tired to keep his act up and seeks out a genuine conversation with the one person whom he hasn't interacted with through the entire adventure
Pomni about to answer sincerely before realizing it's Jax and changing her approach, either out of caution or uncertainty by him being so... casual
she braces for one of his usual remarks/jokes but is surprised when he answers with neither, simply letting her know how he's doing as well
finally, when he's called over for another task, he's still visibly annoyed but follows through without much protest and waves goodbye to Pomni, who is undoubtedly confused by what she just saw.
there have been a couple of instances where the series shows us that Jax is being affected by the circus more than he lets on, and they were really focused on during this episode.
this got me thinking about what Goose really meant by him "getting worse"; most people (myself included) interpreted it as his actions gradually escalating to a point where it could result in conflict with the rest of the cast, but after this scene and near the end where he leaves and gets in his car, it could be understood as his repressed emotions finally catching up to him and turning his mental well-being for the worst. It could also be a mix of the two
now this is the part where I put my delusional cap on, but there has been a significant build up to Jax and Pomni's relationship through the whole series, the most notorious one being:
his hand missing from Pomni's moment of realization that the other people she's been trapped with are trustworthy and care for her. You obviously can't blame her for coming to this conclusion, but I think that's exactly what made this small interaction a lot more important
Jax has been pushing others away and masking his emotions for who knows how long, and one of the primary focus and messages of TADC is connections with others and how important they are, so for them to show us Pomni seeing Jax have a brief moment of vulnerability, I do believe it's reasonable to think that they will eventually develop a relationship with some amount of significance, maybe even something close to a friendship
but yeah, feeling very normal
Ok. I finished House's Head/Wilson's Heart last night. I have thoughts. *****S4 and slight S5 spoilers*****
Wilson's grief is so hard to watch. Amber and Wilson's last moments together broke me.
But holy shit, can we talk about the pain House is going through?
First of all, why was House alone in a bar getting plastered? Because he was already struggling that hard to deal with his Wilson Time being cut in half. Why didn't he just drink at home? Because he wanted to create a situation where his keys would be taken, and Wilson would HAVE to come and be with him, even just for the duration of a drive home. He couldn't bear to go even one more evening without him.
Aside from that, the fact that Amber and House are so similar; House was basically watching what he and Wilson's life could have looked like if he was born a woman.
( When I saw the girl looked just like me / And it broke my heart / The lengths you went to hold me / To get to have me - Should've Been Me by Mitski)
The thing is though, House didn't even hesitate to put his life and brain on the line, just so that Wilson could have a chance to be happy with his girlfriend. Not for Wilson to be with House, but for him to be happy, with or without him.
And it's not his leg we're talking about here. We've already got a glimpse of how devastating it would be for House to lose his leg. But for him to survive the procedure, and lose his BRAIN? To lose his puzzles? To lose the one thing that makes him him? That, to me, is a far bigger sacrifice than his life. House was willing to live the rest of his life confused and mentally disabled, never able to diagnose anyone again, if it meant Wilson could be happy.
On the Heaven Bus with Amber, House straight up admits that he'd rather die than have Wilson hate him. He fears losing him more than he fears death itself. He would rather die thinking Wilson loves him, than live for a second in a world where he doesn't.
Now imagine how it feels to get off the bus and head back to a place that could contain his absolute worst fear, a fear worse than death.
And it comes true.
Not only does Wilson hate House, not only does he leave him, he tells him that their friendship all along was never real. Not only does he deny the friendship that House stays alive for, he denies the friendship that House had been staying alive for all those years. In that moment, he not only denies his sacrifice, he denies the thousands and thousands of moments of vulnerability and sacrifice before that.
House stands there, silent and motionless, because he can't actually comprehend it. His mind won't let him. He doesn't get upset or angry, because it hasn't actually registered in his head. It's not true.
He sits on the floor of Wilson's empty office, he keeps going back to the last place he saw Wilson, because he can't even comprehend that he's not there anymore. For him to even accept that fact, is an unimaginable Hell.
House would have mangled his body and destroyed his soul for Wilson's happiness, and he doesn't even acknowledge it.
Amber's death is sad, but at least Wilson was there for her in death. She knew she was loved when she died. House nearly died multiple times, and instead wakes up to hatred.
I know how grief can change you, so I understand why Wilson left. House and Wilson are my favourite dynamic in the show, but a part of me wants House to just walk away too for his own sake. It hurts to see him still cling on to Wilson when he's so ungrateful.
House seems like the most arrogant and selfish person on the show, but in reality he's completely selfless.
This was funnier in my head 😭Happy Twisters release day 🤠🌪️
20th anniversaries of movie debuts coming up in 2024:
Shrek 2, The Incredibles. The Polar Express and The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie. (There are some others as well, 2004 was a nice year for film mostly.)
unsure if my ask went thru bc i didnt see the popup that said it sended over so i’m typing it out again
i NEEED NEEDD a tutorial on how you draw & design mechs bc the way you draw them is literally perfection in every way. this is from an anon who wants to make mech ocs but is unsure where to start theyre so complicated to design
dusting off my tutorial brain
my style of mech is very influenced by transformers (mix of different continuities and tf artists that I like) so I look at a lot of characters for inspiration
There's a lot of stuff you could add to it too like vents, pipes, antennas, fins, wires, joints, etc..
went and saw twisters and it is a horse girl movie where the horse is a tornado and the girl does science experiments on it
Some nerds on the internet: you can’t make your OC too awesome because then it’s a Mary Sue and nobody will like them
Guillermo Del Toro, a man with balls: his name is STACKER PENTECOST and he leads a LEGION OF GIANT ROBOTS that are piloted by HIS FAMILY and he funds by SELLING MONSTER PARTS ON THE BLACK MARKET and he’s played by IDRIS ELBA
With Gooseworx all but confirming that the Jax being an AI thing is bullshit, I personally want to talk about an interesting part about Jax that a lot of theorists used as "evidence" that validates the theory:
Jax's fourth wall breaks are a common topic brought up amongst the "Jax is an NPC" theory. After all, Caine broke the fourth wall in the pilot, knowing full well that the world of The Amazing Digital Circus isn't real and is talking to some unseen viewer as he introduces the Circus Crew.
There's also this bit of official art surrounding Jax's pin:
Where everyone else is inside their room, Jax is outside as pieces of the circus fall apart around him and all of reality to crash. Certainly lends itself to this idea that Jax knows he's not a real person and that his presence could cause great disruption to this world. And he doesn't care because none of it is real. Might as well have fun and cause chaos in a world that doesn't exist.
And I'll admit, all of this seems like valid claims for how the theory could be true. I saw it all and thought that it surely COULD be possible...but there are some things that stop me from being convinced.
Firstly, Caine breaking the fourth wall in the pilot doesn't really seem like an AI talking to the audience. It looks more like an AI programmed to talk to a player as a game boots up. What we saw in the opening could be more like a morning routine that he has to do at least once a day. Plus, we've yet to see any other NPC talk to the audience like Jax has. He explicitly called out the viewers in episode three, knowing full well he's being watched by SOMEONE. Or, at the very least, acting like he is. What do I mean by that? Well, to explain, I'd like to use one of my favorite fourth wall breakers as an example:
Deadpool, in most adaptations, knows fully well that he's a fictional character. He'll talk to the readers/viewers, move the camera around, and constantly talk shit to the writers/studio for occasionally screwing him over. It's all in good (Sometimes bloody) fun...but there's a canonical reason for this. It's not like She-Hulk where the fourth wall breaks are a way to tell HER stories HER way. You see, Deadpool...is just fucking insane.
No, really, that's the reason. Due to the trauma of gaining his powers, Deadpool's mind breaks and he's led to believe that he MUST be a fictional character. In comics, he actually gets voices in his head that makes him think he must be some comic book superhero, and the movies implied that something similar happened given how he never broke the fourth wall ONCE before getting his powers. This means him breaking the fourth wall could be seen as a coping mechanism. After all, it's better to believe you're a fictional character designed to entertain some invisible audience than believe that all of the shitty things that happened to you and people close to you is just a cruel joke from the universe.
Sound familiar?
Going back to the pilot, remember how Pomni's first instinct was to say that the Circus was all just a dream? To her, it's better to live in a lie that everything around her isn't real than to accept the reality that she's stuck in digital purgatory. Jax very well could be going through something similar, but unlike Pomni who seemed to just accept her reality, Jax never did. The trauma of being stuck in the Circus had led to his mind breaking just like Pomni's, Kinger's, and anyone else's. It's just that, for him, he thinks he's coping with it better because he discovered the secret that no one else did: None of this is real.
They're not actually people trapped in some hellscape while an AI unintentionally tortures them. They're all just fictional characters whose tragedies and silly antics are used to entertain viewers. I mean, it's either that or they're real people forever trapped in the circus with the closest thing to death being a full, psychotic break as they give up their sanity because they no longer want to exist in this hell anymore...But that possibly can't be true. Because if that IS true, then Jax has to face that he's a real person stuck in a real, awful situation that he can't joke his way out of. So, it's best to think nothing is real and nothing they do matter. So, might as well have fun with it.
Going back to the pin...
I don't think this is damning evidence about Jax being an NPC. Actually, it perfectly captures who he is as a character. He knows the circus isn't real. He even thinks HE isn't real. So instead of grappling with that, Jax lets himself believe that if nothing is real than nothing he does matters. He can break things, ruin lives, and assist in torturing the others in the circus. It's what he thinks will make the show more entertaining, even though all he's really entertaining is himself so his mind doesn't break more than it does.
Now, could the same apply if he's an NPC? Well...maybe. Gumigoo definitely proves how far someone could fall when they're told their world is fake. He was about ready to give up on life because he didn't think he had one. If Jax was an NPC, I could see him having a similar break, but going in the far opposite direction where, instead of giving up on life, he chooses to live the way HE wants it. Instead of being some one-off NPC for a lame adventure, he could go off on adventures of his own and ruin the lives of others now that his is thoroughly ruined.
However, Gooseworx makes a good point: "...a lot of people come up with theories based on how unexpected they'd be, and not because they make sense or align with the show's themes."
If Jax is an NPC, it would harm the overall message of the show. That there's meaning to be found in a stagnant life, and you find that meaning with people close to you who make that life worth living. Jax represents a sort of foil to that idea, with his way of coping with the madness being pure chaos and breaking others. It's his coping mechanism, and it works because it shows how human Jax really is. They're ALL human and they have human desires and wants, with the Circus pretty much stripping that away and leaving them...as they are now. They're emotionally broken, their sanity is decreasing, and some of them are losing all sense of self. By making Jax an NPC, it would definitely be surprising, but it would take away from that idea. It no longer makes him a human facing his own tragedy but instead an AI that's just as broken as Gummigoo. More than that, it gives the others an easy out. All the crew has to do is tell Caine that Jax is an NPC and POOF! No more annoyance. So making him someone who HAS to stay with the others and they're forever forced to deal with him also adds more to THEIR tragedy and torture.
Jax being an NPC is an interesting theory, but I don't think it's one that SHOULD be true. To me, it's more fascinating watching Jax treat the world around him as meaningless knowing he's a human instead of a rogue NPC breaking everything. And Gooseworx made it clear how they feel about it. Now, could it potentially be a mislead to get fans off the trail? Genuinely...I don't think so. That sounded very "I don't like this idea so it's not gonna happen" type of response. Still, we won't know until the show wraps up. Anything can happen, but don't get your hopes up if a character who does bad things to people that don't deserve it is more human than you think.
I like them
Neurodivergent people love pacific rim bc its basic theses are “two besties who share a braincell can pilot a mecha” and “what if crab was big”
Since we're all talking about Minecraft because of the Minecraft movie, I thought it would be nice if we all made a list of minecraft things to watch. So here,
Minecraft Story Mode remaster (not out yet, go watch the teaser and support it tho!)
Minecraft Story Mode (SpottinGames has walkthroughs of both seasons separate as both Male Jesse (season 1, season 2) and Female Jesse (season 1, season2). There are also a bunch of other no commentary playthroughs out there. I just chose this one because it offers both Male and Female Jesse).
Animation Vs Minecraft (by Alan Becker. There is the old stand alone video, which actually serves as episode 1 and the rest of the series (season 1, season 2, season 3). It's really good, both in terms of animation and story, and uses minecraft in a creative way).